"Twinkle twinkle little st… Whoosh, Burn, Ooh! Aaah!" ... everybody shrieks. Sets off every dog in the valley. That's a Lively Night Out in Ste Colombe!
Ever since we've come to Bordeaux in the Summer – forty years, almost – stargazing has been a feature. There's still not a lot else to do. Originally, the clarity of the night sky here astounded us who had grown up in murky England. Could actually see the Milky Way. Then in Ste Colombe, there were no street lights. Not needed. The locals went to sleep at dusk because they would be up at dawn to work before the heat. So no light pollution.
We had no other diversions after dark being as we'd have drunk too much so anything intellectual was out of the question. So we would lie on the ground and look up, saying "beam me up" and "warp drive Mr Sulu" etc.
We'd spot satellites – or sputniks as they were then – and cry out "seven o'clock, heading to two". There were not as many planes as now. We are on the main holiday flightpath to Spain. Just little stars that moved jerkily across the sky. They do still.
But a shooting star … now that would MAKE our evening. If we ALL saw it. Tonight, we all saw a cracker. Three seconds. And a fiery break up at the end. Really does make everyone yell and set the dogs barking.
Which reminds me of the very special night, long ago, up at La Clariere (where we no longer live because its now home to winemakers and outbounders) when my mate Parkin fell asleep starwatching and stayed out all night … comatose … to wake at dawn … with a small dog trying to eat him.
We laughed! Still has the marks.
Happy days.
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